HANDS ON: The LG Lifeband Touch, The Best Activity Tracker We've Ever Seen

Megan Rose Dickey, provided by

Published 10:33 am, Sunday, January 12, 2014

LG's Lifeband Touch is one of the most promising activity trackers we've seen so far.

What makes the Lifeband Touch stand out from the crowd is its ability to double as an activity tracker and pseudo smart watch. Sure, it's not nearly as robust as a Pebble smart watch, but it's a perfect solution for someone who just wants to know about their fitness and receive phone notifications.

Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch and the Sony smart watch, the Lifeband feels practical and actually useful. There's no concrete launch date or price, but LG says it will be available sometime this year.

We checked it out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

At its core, the LG Lifeband Touch is an activity tracker that is compatible with apps like MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, and Withings. And the OLED display is actually a touch screen.You can use it to track your steps, see how many calories you've burned, and receive notifications from your smartphone apps. It's compatible with Android and iOS.Unlike other activity trackers, the Lifeband Touch can also communicate with LG's television sets. That way, you can do guided workouts from your TV when you're home.These are the LG Heartbeat Headphones. The earbud set, which is compatible with the Lifeband Touch, has monitors in each earpiece to measure your heart rate. If you receive a phone call while listening to music, simply look at your Lifeband to see who's calling, and then decide if you actually want to answer your phone.

Again, there's still no word on when these bad boys will officially launch, but LG's wearables seem like something you should probably hold out for.